Galapagos Islands - Iguanas

We saw (and smelled) a lot of iguana.  Both the land and marine varieties.  They kind of grow on you....

Marine Iguana soaking in a shallow pool to warm up in the morning

Marine Iguana claws hanging onto the lava rock


A colorful land iguana


A nice smile


Attention, Attention - I have something important to tell you all!


A very proud looking marine iguana


Marine Iguana tails


Marine Iguana textures


Marine Iguana's stop for no man (or iguana)


Taking a break from eating flowers


The end

Galapagos Islands - Flamingos

We were fortunate enough to see flamingos on 2 different islands.  Our naturalist was incredibly skilled at bird calls - and in one case she was able to get a reaction from several of them!  This post is for Jenn's dad Rich & sister Stephie!   (old inside joke....)



Early morning reflection



Later in the morning


Reacting to the bird calls



Wonderful lines

Galapagos Islands - Tortoises

While there are a few places to see the famous Galapagos giant Tortoise in sanctuaries, there are limited opportunities to see them in the wild.  We were fortunate enough to see a few!



Slow but beautiful



ET was modeled after these guys - you can see it



It's a hard knock life



Time to trim those nails



The arms look like armor



Cool feet!

Galapagos Islands - Under the Sea

We weren't able to post day-by-day during our recently completed trip to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.  So we decided to mix things up, and do a post for each different type of photo subject.

So, to kick things off, here are the underwater shots from our trip:



Galapagos Penguin swimming by


VERY curious sea lions!


Checking the GoPro out just before trying to take a little bite out of it!


Shark!


It's incredible how graceful the turtles are


YAT (Yet Another Turtle)


Who knew fish could photobomb?


Always nice when the fish pose willingly


YAF (Yet Another Fish)


Lots of beautiful fish to be seen


A ray shot from the zodiak (using a pole below the water)

Olympic National Park

Happy Easter everyone!  We took a short trip up to the Olympic National Park, and Laurence couldn't resist getting out of the warm dry car to take pictures in the pouring rain, standing in the stream!


Waterfall along the way to Sol Duc



Looking across the rapids in the Sol Duc river



Nice lines in the river



Stormy Lake Crescent - where we met way back in 1990.  Awwwww!

Windy Cannon Beach morning

We had a terrific time with our friends Annie & Alex at Cannon Beach for a long weekend.  We had some terrific winter storm weather, with window rattling winds last night.  This is from a brief sunny break in the weather, but the winds were still pretty intense.  Laurence had fun trying to capture the sand movement in the wind.

Cannon Beach Valentine's Day

Greetings from Cannon Beach, Oregon - Happy Valentine's Day everyone!



Valentine's Day Beach walk



Fun wind-blown sand patterns



Jennifer smiling after a run with the faintest view of Haystack rock in the background

Kilauea Lighthouse

Yesterday we visited the Kilauea Lighthouse on the north shore.  The Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge is here and we saw Red-footed boobies, Black-footed Albatrosses and endangered Hawaiian Geese.



North shore swell battering the rocks


More crashing waves


Goose with a view


What are you looking at?


The lighthouse glass

More stormy wave photos

A few more photos from yesterday - we are having a blast!

Kauai Storm Waves

One of Laurence's favorite Kauai activities is to watch the surf report for incoming storms to create big sets of wave on the north shore to photograph.

Guess what came in overnight?
Guess who was very excited?  :)


A very long exposure for waves (3 seconds) makes for a more abstract image



We caught the start of a rainbow just as the sun was rising behind us.

More to come soon!

Kauai

It's a long standing tradition of ours to escape the damp gray Seattle weather in late fall/winter in hope of finding sunshine somewhere warm.

This year we find ourselves in Kauai, and while there has been some tropical rain, it's still significantly warmer and sunnier than back home!
Barking Sands Beach looking towards the Na Pali Coast



Breaking waves at Barking Sands Beach

Redwood National Park

Trees.  Giant Trees!

What a wonderful experience to walk among 300 ft tall, 1500 year old trees.  Words can't describe how peaceful and tranquil it is.  And photos really don't do it justice....

A giant Redwood disappears into the fog



The path into the Redwoods



Jennifer demonstrating how tall the Redwoods are



Later in the day with less fog



Detail of Redwood bark